Quarterback, defensive coordinator remain a mystery

Given the composition of the Philadelphia Eagles team he has inherited from Andy Reid's staff, new coach Chip Kelly still hasn't moved or revealed plans to address the two biggest question marks about his team heading into 2013: quarterback and defensive coordinator.

Everyone knows by now that Michael Vick definitely will not be retained at the salary he's due to make and is not likely to return regardless of whether he'd be willing to take less, which he still is not reportedly ready to do.

That leaves Nick Foles, who showed enormous promise despite an uneven rookie season in which the only win he led the team to came on the last play of a game at Tampa Bay, where the fading Bucs showed very little life.

The recent revelation that San Francisco 49ers veteran Alex Smith will seek his release before the NFL's free agency period begins in March could impact what they do here. After an uneven start to his own career, in which many were obviously way too quick to label him a bust, Smith has proved over the last two seasons, in which Jim Harbaugh has stabilized the whole football operation, that he could operate a championship contender at a high level.

Smith has the mobility and winning experience to presumably be a great fit for the kind of offense Kelly was hired to run in Philadelphia, and the Eagles also have the resources to acquire him in a trade, should they not want to risk getting into a bidding war in free agency.

But obviously that question, only the most important, remains open as a nervous fan base anxiously awaits definitive plan from the new coach, who was so traumatized by the media blitz in his first day on the job that he is refusing to announce any of his new coaching hires until his whole staff is in place, which would limit the next media blitz at the NovaCare Complex to one day instead of 10 or so.

I could be wrong, but I can't think of any coach that's operated this way before in the NFL. Then again, that may be part of his appeal. Throughout the coaching search and hiring process, the idea that Kelly is not conventional with any approach he takes, on the field or off, seemed to have owner Jeffrey Lurie excited beyond the point of description.

But in the meantime, if you're up for some X-rated Eagles entertainment involving that scourge of society, Twitter, check out a link to this latest exchange between running back LeSean McCoy and his ex-girlfriend, who accuses him of being a deadbeat dad who his not very well endowed and has herpes to boot.